Stealthing
Non-consensual condom removal, or "stealthing", is the practice of one sex partner covertly removing a condom, when sexual consent has only been given by the other sex partner for condom-protected safer sex.12 Storia News and media outlets have reported on a research article by Alexandra Brodsky published in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law about stealthing. In the article, Brodsky described victims' experiences, legal implications, and legal avenues to address stealthing. The term stealthing has been in use in the gay community to describe this practice Brodsky described how the practice of stealthing is discussed, described, and advocated for on various websites and forums. These forums are sometimes used to brag about committing stealthing and to share tips on how to do it. The practice has also been described as "a threat to victim's bodily agency and as a dignitary harm", and men who do this "justify their actions as a natural male instinct". Columbia Law School professor Suzanne Goldberg says that the practice of stealthing is likely not new, but its promotion on the internet among men is new. One such website, The Experience Project, posted how-to guides for men. Condom negotiation is often silenced by male partners in adolescent relationships, partially due to the female's fear of her partner’s response, a feeling of obligation, and a lack of knowledge or skills in negotiating condom use. To prevent this, it is important that male partners are reached with the information as to why condoms are beneficial for them as well. Forums for this outreach could include community-wide interventions fostering discussion of healthy and unhealthy relationship practices and prevention programs for HIV/AIDS and STIs. Schools can provide a safe site for prevention interventions, but high-risk adolescents who are not in school must be reached through additional means, such as in community centers or detention centers.Teitelman AM, Tennille J, Bohinski JM, Jemmott LS, Jemmott JB III Unwanted unprotected sex: Condom coercion by male partners and self-silencing of condom negotiation among adolescent girls. Advances in Nursing Science, 2011; 34 (3): 243-259 Statistics on the prevalence of stealthing are limited. However, a 2014 study by Kelly Cue Davis and colleagues reported that 9.0% of participants in their sample of young men reported having engaged in condom sabotage, which included non-consensual condom removal. The National Sexual Assault Hotline reports receiving calls about stealthing. A recent study from a Melbourne based sexual health clinic asked women and men who have sex with men (MSM) attending the clinic whether they had experienced stealthing, and analysed situational factors associated with the event. Thirty-two percent of women and 19% of MSM reported having ever experienced stealthing . Women who had been stealthed were more likely to be a current sex worker and MSM who had experienced stealthing were more likely to report anxiety or depression. Both female and male participants who had experienced stealthing were three times less likely to consider it to be sexual assault than participants who had not experienced it. Legal and ethical concerns In UK law, consent to a specific sex act, but not to any sex act without exceptions, is known as conditional consent. In 2018, a man was found guilty of sexual assault in Germany's first conviction for stealthing. In 2017, a Swiss court convicted a French man for rape for removing a condom during sex against the expectations of the woman he was having sex with. A 2014 Supreme Court of Canada ruling upheld a sexual assault conviction of a man who poked holes in his condom. Existing laws in the United States do not specifically cover stealthing and there are no known legal cases about it. In her research on stealthing, Brodsky noted that Swiss and Canadian courts have prosecuted cases of condoms broken or removed by men unbeknownst to their partners. Brodsky describes stealthing as legally "rape-adjacent" and akin to rape. An Australian court case is underway regarding stealthing. The president of the NSW law society has described stealthing as sexual assault because it changes the terms of consent. Impact and risks By removing the condom during sex, stealthing increases the risks of pregnancy and the transmittal of STIs and STDs. Victims may experience emotional and psychological distress as well, especially those who have experienced sexual violence in the past. See also * Reproductive coercion References Category:Condoms Category:Sex crimes Category:Sexual health